At the North-East corner of the Mount of Olives near the site of the tombs of the prophets Haggai, Malachi, and Zecharia is a lovely little chapel called Dominus flevit, built in the shape of a tear and designed by the famous Italian architect Antonio Barluzzi. As you kneel in prayer and look towards the Crucifix on the Altar you can see a lattice window incorporating a chalice and beyond it is one of the most beautiful views of the old city of Jerusalem. It was there, at that spot that Jesus wept for Jerusalem. It is difficult to spend any time in the Holy Land without being overcome with the sadness that pervades its history. How everything that was meant to be just isn’t. It is now a land of Promise that is morally impoverished by hostility between those who inherited it from God; a land in which security is only won at the expense of others. A land without love in the place Jesus showed us how to love one another. A city for all: That chalice in the window says it all. It represents the unity for which Christ lived and died. Around Christ’s table we are called into fellowship with each other – to eat and drink together, leaving behind differences of race and gender, doctrine and dispute, and yet everywhere we fence that table around with barriers, claiming exclusive rights to the blessing Christ proclaimed and made a reality through his death and resurrection. On my visits to the Holy land, I have witnessed the tragic divisions that scar not just our world but particularly our Christian denominations. At many sites, there are Altars exclusively reserved for the use of one denomination or another. Most offensive of all is the infighting that goes on in the church of the Holy Sepulchre where Christian denominations war for control of the holiest places in the building. The Pharisees who came to see Jesus on this occasion had the same agenda. They wanted him out of Jerusalem. This was their city and they alone had the authority to say what happened here. They came to Jesus with a threat veiled as a warning. “Watch out! Herod is coming to get you. It was they, with the collaboration of the chief priests and rulers who eventually handed him over to Herod and the Roman power. Jesus refused to leave, he would he said “Reach my goal” and complete his mission. “So go tell that fox, ‘I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day, I will reach my goal” Luke 13: 32. The agenda of the Pharisees was the same as the current religious powers, they will keep the ‘Others out’. They will stop at nothing to maintain their authority over Jerusalem. Yet Jesus’ life and death were not determined by Herod or the Pharisees but was planned and directed by God, and his mission would unfold in God’s time and according to His will. A chicken and its chicks: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often have I longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! Look, your house is left to you desolate”. Luke 13: 34/35. Stanley Spencer caught the essence of this picture in his final painting in the Lent series ‘Christ in the wilderness. He called it ‘The Hen’ and it was painted in 1954 some fourteen years after the completion of the other paintings in the series. Christ is portrayed as a hencoop, sheltering the mother hen who hides the chicks beneath her wings. He could have portrayed Christ as a sheepfold, for this too is a familiar image from the gospels. Christ is the gate into the sheepfold and he is the protecting walls around it. So too is the image of the mother hen sheltering her chicks beneath her wings. The prophetic writing of the Old Testament often refers to the Almighty as a protecting wing. We can see from the huge sleeves in Jesus' robe that there is room for many chicks in the folds for he too is our protecting wing. There are some cockerels and a hen who choose not to enter into the hen coop but wander around outside, but the door is open for them to come in too. We can see a late arrival just coming into land, it is not a chick but a sparrow, however, it is welcome too. This is a picture of inclusive love for all whatever their stripe! Jesus is the one who gathers in as opposed to the religious leaders who wish to exclude all but their own. Such is the love of our Saviour for us that he welcomes the stranger, and protects the weak. The loving, saving, presence of the one who stayed with us to the end, refusing to be moved from his task, that all could take shelter under his wings. The time for weeping is over, it is time to start mobilising God’s love to counter the divisions of race, religion, gender, and class, be it here or in Jerusalem. Only then will we be blessed because we come in the name of the Lord. That is the Chalice that Christ hands to us. Rev. Simon Brignall
Deuteronomy 26: 1 – 11/Luke 4: 1-13. Once upon a time, there was a young boy, he was looking with fascination as a butterfly emerged from its casing, the chrysalis. As the butterfly struggled to shed its hard shell it appeared to tire, no longer struggling to emerge but pumping with its body. The boy was worried that it might never emerge and so, hoping to help, he eased the butterfly out of the case. The crumpled body of the butterfly flopped to the floor of the glass case and attempted to drag its body toward the light. Its wings were limp and useless, hanging like rags instead of spreading out with a display of its shining brilliance. Those wings would now never flash in the sunlight because they had been never been pumped up with the blood that would flow into the tiny vein that formed its wings. The butterfly had been prevented from pumping that precious blood into its wings because it had been eased out of its chrysalis too early. The struggle to emerge was part of the creation of strong and beautiful wings with which it would fly. Christ in the Wilderness – Rising in the morning (1940) The natural world has a way of teaching us lessons for life. Jesus often pointed to the birds of the air, the grass of the fields, or the fruit on the vine. Artists too have used this rich imagery to illustrate his life. Stanley Spencer pictures Jesus as a kind of butterfly emerging from the broken shell of the cocoon in the last of his studies on the ‘Temptations of Christ’. The painting, one of a series designed originally to cover the forty days of Lent, recalls Spencer’s own traumatic experiences in the first world war. He served both as a medical orderly and as a regular soldier in Macedonia. The series, which eventually reached a total of eighteen paintings was begun in 1940 as war again engulfed the world. The backdrop to the paintings in the Macedonian landscape of red earth and scrubby bushes. In this painting, Christ in the wilderness – Rising in the morning. (1940), Christ rises from a shell crater to bring healing and restoration to creation. Jesus emerges from the trials of his confrontation with the power of evil with wings spread out ready to fly. He has emerged stronger from the struggle and is ready now for the ministry God the Father has prepared for him. Just as the butterfly must struggle to free itself from the restrictions of the cocoon, so the wrestling in the wilderness is a necessary preparation for his ministry. The wings of the butterfly would have no strength without the struggle and the ministry of Jesus would have been powerless without the trials of the desert. The formation of Israel The wilderness years of wandering in the desert are often thought of as wasted years in the history of God’s people yet they are told to remember them when they emerge into the ‘Promised land’. It was here they learned important lessons about themselves and their God. Identity: It was there that they learned of their true identity as the ‘People of God’. They had been a bunch of ‘homeless Aramaeans’ but God called them to be a great nation. Vocation: It was here that God called them out of the slavery of Egypt to be a holy people serving Him alone. Covenant: It was here they received the Law, not as a burden to bear but the promise of a faithful God who would be at their side in all their struggles. They discovered all this in the heat and dust of the desert. When they were tempted to turn back because they had no food, they found God mindful of their needs. When they were tempted to revert to the worship of Egypt’s gods, they saw God’s power displayed in mighty signs and miracles. As they faced empty stretches of desert and marauding enemies God proved faithful to His promise to be with them. So now as they enter the Promised Land they were called to bring the first fruits of all they produced so that they should remember: Who they were – God’s people, dependent on Him. What they were called to be – A Holy people dedicated to God. How they had arrived – Through God’s goodness and faithfulness. Blessing through adversity Most of all they were to give thanks for God’s blessing in and through their adversity. It was not just that God delivered them to a good place and fulfilled His promises, but that the adversity itself was a blessing rather than a curse or a punishment. If even Jesus had to go through this wilderness to equip him for his ministry we should expect God in His goodness to test, or should I say bless us, at every stage of our pilgrimage so we are equipped for the journey. Jesus himself was tested but yet it was through his testing that he was confirmed in his identity as the Son of God: Who is Jesus? “If you are the Son of God” Luke 4: 3 In his time of testing his Mission was refined and defined in such a way that he remained focused on His Father’s will. What is he called to do? “You shall worship the Lord your God” Luke 4:8 To equip and strengthen him for his mission and to confirm his identity as Son of God he was given the Holy Spirit. How is he equipped to serve? Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit” Luke 4:1 Like the butterfly, we have no power to fly without the struggle. Without the struggle, we will not be strengthened to serve or remember from whom we have received everything. Without the struggle, we will not remember that we are held and known by a loving God. Without the struggle, we will not remember to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the pioneer, and perfecter of faith. Rev. Simon Brignall
